The Bailong Elevator: a minute up a cliff

How it came to be

Work started in 1999, the lift opened in 2002 and was enlarged in 2013. Three cars run side by side; at peak they move close to seven thousand people an hour between the valley and the cliff top.

Fares and booking

A ride costs ¥65 one way and there is no return ticket. The usual way to buy it is as one half of a day that crosses the park without doubling back: Bailong up (¥65), Tianzi Mountain cable car down (¥72). If you will ride the cable cars and the lift three times or more, the combined pass is ¥238 for four one-way rides or ¥298 unlimited. The lift itself has no time slot to book — that applies to everyone; what you book is your gate and entry time for the forest park. There is a paid priority lane, which the park switches on and off; check whether it is running for your dates. Prices and timetables last checked October 2026; they change — treat them as a guide, not a quote.

When the queue is short

The lift opens with the park — usually 7:00, and 6:30 on public holidays when the park opens early — and stops when the day’s crowd has cleared, which the operator decides on the day. The queue to go up is longer than the queue to come down, because almost everyone climbs in the morning and descends in the afternoon. Visitors in 2026 report walking almost straight on at opening time, waits of around an hour by late morning on weekends, and the queue down and the summit shuttle buses building from about three in the afternoon. Screens at the gates, the cable cars and the lift stations show current waiting times.

Two ways to make this work for you: be at the gate at opening and ride the lift first; or reverse the day — Tianzi Mountain cable car up, Bailong down — and be at the top station of the lift before three.

At the top

From the upper station it is about 1.1 km on foot, along the cliff path, to the shuttle bus stop. The bus from there runs past the Lost Soul Platform and the First Bridge to the Wulong Village car park and on to He Long Park on Tianzi Mountain. The Yuanjiajie viewpoints are on railed, mostly level paths — what you see there is on the Avatar mountains page. After extreme weather the walkways on top can close for a day or two.

If the lift is not running

Annual maintenance has no fixed date. In 2026 the practice has been to stop one car at a time while the other two keep running, which cuts capacity by about a third rather than closing the lift. To avoid it, go up by the Tianzi Mountain or Yangjiajie cable car and take the shuttle bus across. Strong walkers have a third option: Luancuan Slope, the steep staircase from the middle of Golden Whip Stream up to Yuanjiajie, about an hour and a half uphill. Wind, rain and thunderstorms do not stop the lift.

Older travellers and children

The lift has step-free access, but the 1.1 km walk at the top is still there. Foreign visitors aged 65 and over enter the park free; the lift and the cable cars have no senior fare. Children’s fares for the lift vary with age and height — check them for your dates.